Raffensperger calls on Georgia to end runoff elections

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is calling on legislators to do away with the state’s runoff system for general elections, arguing that the process places too heavy a burden on voters and election officials.

“Georgia is one of the only states in [the] country with a General Election Runoff,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”

His comments came just over a week after Georgia held its second Senate runoff election in less than two years. That race saw Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) defeat Republican Herschel Walker, adding one more seat to Democrats’ Senate majority.

State law currently requires a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote in a general election to win outright. If no candidate hits that threshold, the race heads to a runoff between the top two vote-getters.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3774754-raffensperger-calls-on-georgia-to-end-runoff-elections/

[Casady1]

1. Georgia republicans loved it

until they started to lose elections this way. If they had won in 2020 and 2022 there would be no one calling for this. I live in GA.

[ColinC]

3. Of course without it, Ossoff would have lost

[House of Roberts]

2. Jon Ossoff would have beaten Karen Handel

for the 6th district race before he ran for Senate. He barely fell short of 50 percent in that general election but lost the runoff.

[LeftInTX]

13. That was a special election. Runoffs will likely still be around for special elections

Handel won in 2017 and then lost to Lucy McBath in the 2018 general election.

[genxlib]

4. They don't need to abandon the sentiment

Just need to institute instant runoff (or ranked choice) voting.

Gets the same results without all the expense and bother of a whole new election.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. Exactly.

Happy we implemented RCV in Maine.

[Louis1895]

10. Ranked choice voting makes a lot of sense

Totally agree. Saves money and time.

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. And you get better results that reflect the voters intent.

You can vote your favorite candidate 1st, w/o splitting the voter in a way that allows an unwanted minority candidate to win. Maine didn't have a 50% threshold back in 2010, so 62% of the voters split their vote between Democrat and Independent allowing Paul LePage to win with 38% of the vote. The Independent was a classic Republican spoiler, in my humble opinion, as he ran to the left of the Democrat....he's now indicted on child porn charges....

[Chicago1980]

19. A democrat won in Alaska because of RCV...

So Georgia definitely isn't gonna implement that right now.

[AkFemDem]

5. I think this is a legitimate issue

Run offs cost states tons of money.

In the case of Warnock and Walker, Warnock would have won in November anyway so not having a run off would have just meant the DNC (and GOP) and state of GA could have saved millions of dollars and voters could have been spared the subsequent month’s deluge of robocalls.

[GregariousGroundhog]

6. Raffensperger has three proposals he is pitching to the legislature

This article doesn't mention it, but an article maybe a week back called out three changes Raffensperger would like to see.

The first is expand the number of early voting locations. The second is to only require a run-off if no candidate breaks 45% of the vote. The third is to implement a run-off using ranked choice voting (similar to Alaska and Maine) instead of holding a second election.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. When Dems have electoral success, GOP just changes the rules

Link to tweet

[jimfields33]

9. I don't care it's a waste of money.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/us-senate-runoff-could-cost-georgia-taxpayers-tens-of-millions/K35XR72FQZFPFJMML7R6BV2EQY/

[iluvtennis]

12. Why Runoff Elections Began in Georgia - suppression of Black votes in 19th century

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/georgiarunoff

Why Runoff Elections Began in Georgia

However, runoff elections in Georgia – and Louisiana, the only other state that requires them – are hardly a quirk limited to the 2022 election. The history of the December 6 runoff election in Georgia starts back in the 19th century when the perceived threat of newly emancipated (male) slaves actually exercising their right to vote ushered in an increasingly systematic and violent campaign of voter suppression, of which the runoff election is one manifestation.

Voter suppression is an unfortunate legacy of the South’s desperate efforts to maintain white voting majorities at all costs in the years following the Emancipation Proclamation. That cost came not just in the form of the frequent disenfranchisement of Black voters. Physical violence was also commonly perpetuated against voters of color who dared to try to vote. Indeed, violent voter suppression was so common that the term “bulldoze” first came into use in Louisiana in the 1870s, when the state was beginning its long embrace of Jim Crow laws and practices.

While relatively innocuous today, the word bulldoze back then referred to the practice of giving prospective Black voters a “dose” of the bullwhip in order to discourage them from voting. As the bullwhip is generally considered too dangerous to use extensively on a 1000-pound bull, much less a human, it’s pretty obvious what the threat of being bulldozed meant to someone trying to exercise their right to vote.

While bulldozing has ceased to be a common tool of voter suppression, the Georgia legislature has worked hard to maintain white majority rule across the board by putting into practice tactics that today would be seen as subverting the “one person, one vote” rule. Prior to the 1960s, however, “one person one vote” was neither enshrined in the Constitution nor did it exist in any law passed by Congress. Indeed, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren created the body of case law – based on precedent – that made “one person one vote” the foundation of our current voting systems.

...continued at link

====
Like some said above, rank choiced voting seems like a good solution.

[Ms. Toad]

16. Thank you for adding this historical perspective! n/t

[LiberalFighter]

14. They need to provide the total costs of runoffs that has ever been conducted.

[JT45242]

15. Jim Crow dies hard....

How will you ever prevent a qualified black man or woman from winning an election if you do not have a runoff so that the white folks can keep the black folks in their place.... sarcasm here. Unfortunately, to far too many white residents of GA, that is the truth.

[IronLionZion]

17. Whites are around 50% of Georgia now

They can become a minority as soon as next year. That prospect worries people who don't want to be treated like minorities

[iluvtennis]

18. Truth. n/t

[ShazzieB]

20. How does ranked choice voting work if you only like one of the candidates?

I've voted in plenty of elections where there was only one candidate I could even stand. If the election was done by RCV, do I have to rank all the candidates, just my top 3, or what? How about voting for just the one I actually find acceptable? Does it skew the results in some signifiicant way if a lot of people only vote for one candidate?

I have zero personal experience with RCV, and I don't really understand how it works,

[mwooldri]

21. With rcv, irv, stv or similar systems...

You vote for what you want. Only one candidate for you? Okay, stick a 1 by them and you're done. No need to vote for #2 or #3 choice if the rest of the slate is abhorrent to you.

[DFW]

22. Unspoken in his comments:

"And the Democrats have swept three out of the last three of them!"